Falling For A Con Job

Joey mans the counter at a roadside café, receiving payments, taking phonecalls and occasionally serving customers if the waiters are on leave.

There are hundreds like him in Dubai suffering the drudgery of a 12-hour routine. But he is vastly overqualified for the job.

A hotel management graduate from Calicut in Kerala, this tall, lean 26-year-old was impressed by photographs of a five-star Dubai hotel shown to him by a recruiter in India.

“I was shown pictures of a luxurious hotel and smartly dressed executives, and told that I could be one of the lucky staff enjoying good professional prospects and a great lifestyle,'' Joey (name changed) told XPRESS.

Instead, a shock awaited him when he arrived here three months ago on a two-year employment visa.

Joey was taken to a cafeteria in Karama and asked to double up as a cashier and helper for Dh800 a month, a far cry from the Dh3,000 promised to him for an executive position. A van picks him up every morning from a villa in the city where he shares accommodation with other staff and brings him to the cafeteria by 10am.

“I have to repay Rs120,000 (Dh10,000) that I borrowed back home from friends to pay for my visa, but with a Dh800 salary, there is little that I can save,'' he said, adding that the only solution is to look for a better job.

“When I remind them of their promise of the hotel executive job, they claim that currently there is no vacancy but the job would be offered to me later.''

Joey's predicament is not unique. Lawyers say there is no breach of agreement regarding job profile, and terms and conditions, as the copies shown to the Indian Consulate for approval become invalid when Indian workers and employees sign a contract with companies or contractors to secure a visa.

Any change in the nature of the job is explained away by employers as an internal arrangement.

If employees challenge the changes, they are told to accept the situation or go home.

B.S. Mubarak, Senior Indian Consulate official, said the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs maintained a list of rogue recruitment agents and blocked their transactions.

But blacklisted agents often carried on their activities in the name of other firms.

“Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Indians arrive in the emirates every day to meet the demand for labour. There are more than 25 flights coming into Dubai from Indian destinations daily,'' he said.

K V Shamsudheen, founder-president of Pravasi Bandhu, a non-profit social service organisation, said hundreds of Indians voluntarily accept the work conditions and hope to switch jobs later.

Subhash, a commerce graduate from Kerala, also fell prey to an unscrupulous agent.

“I was promised an accountant clerk's job in a German firm, but when I landed here I was put in an outdoor packaging job,'' he said.

He sold a portion of family land to pay Rs100,000 (Dh8,360) to an agent for an employment visa.

Subhash earns a paltry Dh700 and is also hoping to find a better job. “I can't face family and friends back home till I make good here,'' he said.